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1. People attend college or university for many different reasons (for example, new experiences,
career preparation, increased knowledge). Why do you think people attend college or
university? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer

College is a place that the students can learn more and new knowledge and experience in it. Of course,
different people have different reason to study in college. For example, some people want to be to go
on a further study after they graduate from the college; some people hope to find a good job after their
studying in the college and also some people wish to exchange their present situation through studying
in the college. In my opinion, no matter what reason people study in the college for, studying in the
college is just a preparation for their future' life.

First of all, students can learn new knowledge and experiences from the studying in the college. There
are many teachers, professors with abundant teaching experience who teach students lots of new
knowledge and help them to solve the problems in their study. With their help, student can learn a lot of
useful basic and professional knowledge which is very helpful for their future' work. And study. After
they finish their study in the college, students go to work in the society and contribute to the different
fields.

Secondly, students can learn how to arrange their own time reasonably. Before their studying in college,
their life often arranged by their parents and their study often arranged by their teachers.
It is very different for them to live and study in college, because students studying in college have to
arrange their life and study by themselves. They have right to arrange their part time, such as when to
get up, when is the sport-time, when to finish the assignment etc. This is very important experience for
students' work and life in the future.

Finally, studying in the college make students having opportunity to live with other student and learn
how to cooperate with other people. Usually, people often have uncomfortable feeling to live with a
stranger, because they do not know each other and perhaps their habit and personality are different.
But for the long run, it is good for them. They have to cooperate with each other and solve a lot of
problems they will face together. Gradually, they can learn how to care and understand other people. It
is a preparation for students to go to cooperate with other people in the society.

All in all, students not only can learn lots of new knowledge from the books but also can learn much
more necessary experience such as how to arrange time and how to cooperate with other people. It is
very important for their future' wok and life.
 2. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Parents are the best teachers. Use
specific reasons and examples to support your answer

Throughout my life, I have been lucky enough to have a very good relationship with my parents. They
have supported me, given me necessary criticism, and taught me a great deal about how to live my life.
Parents can be very important teachers in our lives; however, they are not always the best teachers.

Parents may be too close to their children emotionally. Sometimes they can only see their children
through the eyes of a protector. For example, they may limit a child's freedom in the name of safety. A
teacher might see a trip to a big city as a valuable new experience. However, it might seem too
dangerous to a parent.

Another problem is that parents may expect their children's interests to be similar to their own. They
can't seem to separate from their children in their mind. If they love science, they may try to force their
child to love science too. But what if their child's true love is art, or writing, or car repair?

Parents are usually eager to pass on their values to their children. But should children always believe
what their parents do? Maybe different generations need different ways of thinking. When children are
young, they believe that their parents are always right. But when they get older, they realize there are
other views. Sometimes parents, especially older ones, can't keep up with rapid social or technological
changes. A student who has friends of all different races and backgrounds at school may find that his
parents have narrower views. A student who loves computers may find that her parents don't really
understand or value the digital revolution. Sometimes kids have to find their own ways to what they
believe in.

The most important thing to realize is that we all have many teachers in our lives. Our parents teach us,
our teachers teach us, and our peers teach us. Books and newspapers and television also teach us. All of
them are valuable.
 3. Nowadays, food has become easier to prepare. Has this change improved the way people
live? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

The twentieth century has brought with it many advances. With those advances, human lives have
changed dramatically. In some ways life is worse, but mostly it is better. Changes in food preparation
methods, for example, have improved our lives greatly.

The convenience of preparing food today is amazing. Even stoves have gotten too slow for us.
Microwave cooking is much easier. We can press a few buttons and a meal is completely cooked in just a
short time. People used to spend hours preparing an oven-cooked meal, and now they can use that time
for other, better things. Plus, there are all kinds of portable, prepackaged foods we can buy. Heat them
in the office microwave, and lunch at work is quick and easy.

Food preparation today allows for more variety. With refrigerators and freezers; we can preserve a lot of
different foods in our homes. Since technology makes cooking so much faster, people are willing to
make several dishes for even a small meal. Parents are more likely to let children be picky, now that they
can easily heat them up some prepackaged macaroni and cheese on the side. Needless to say, adults
living in the same house may have very different eating habits as well. If they don't want to cook a lot of
different dishes, it's common now to eat out at restaurants several times a week.

Healthful eating is also easier than ever now. When people cook, they can use new fat substitutes and
cooking sprays to cut fat and calories. This reduces the risk of heart disease and high cholesterol.
Additionally, we can buy fruits and vegetables fresh, frozen or canned. They're easy to prepare, so many
of us eat more of those nutritious items daily. A hundred years ago, you couldn't imagine the process of
taking some frozen fruit and ice from the freezer, adding some low fat yogurt from a plastic cup and
some juice from a can in the refrigerator, and whipping up a low fat smoothie in the blender!

Our lifestyle is fast, but people still like good food. What .new food preparation technology has given us
is more choices. Today, we can prepare food that is more convenient, healthier, and of greater variety
than ever before in history.
 4. It has been said, "Not everything that is learned is contained in books." Compare and contrast
knowledge gained from experience with knowledge gained from books. In your opinion,
which source is more important? Why?

People always are learning and practicing through their whole lives. From reading words in text book
such as toy, car, train etc. , people have the concept and ideas. They further understand the actual
meaning of these words by playing toys and riding or driving cars, trains etc.

Education (books) and experience are the main two channels for People to gain their knowledge. Each
play different roles for people. In my opinion, knowledge from experience is more important than that
from books.

Experience first can prove if the knowledge form books are true or false. Textbooks are very wonderful
in teaching people essential principles, how is the world looks like? what is the basic law of change of
people and things? We can learn a lot through primary school, secondary school until university.
However, people can only understand the really meaning of those form books and justify them if they
are right through practices. A few hundred years ago, people learnt from text book that the earth was
flat. However scientists found that was wrong through observations and measurement.

The knowledge from experience can improve and advance the world and our society. As books have
limitation, they only teach us the what people found in the past. The knowledge from the books are
constrained to the certain conditions and environment. For example, mould and tools design for plastics
industry, the university course only taught me very simple cases, most knowledge are obtained from
various different and complicated cases in my career.

There are a lot new inventions and new products which could not be found from textbooks. Our society
and world are developed through continuous practices, those knowledge, never found in books, such as
internet, e-business etc. are all developed through new practices.

"The truth comes from practices and experience", people are continually discovering new things and
assessing the creditability of the knowledge written in books. The knowledge from experience help us
much more than those from books.
 5. A company has announced that it wishes to build a large factory near your community.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this new influence on your community. Do you
support or oppose the factory? Explain your position.

New factories often bring many good things to a community, such as jobs and increased prosperity.
However, in my opinion, the benefits of having a factory are outweighed by the risks. That is why I
oppose the plan to build a factory near my community.

I believe that this city would be harmed by a large factory. In particular, a factory would destroy the
quality of the air and water in town. Factories bring smog and pollution. In the long run, the
environment will be hurt and people's health will be affected. Having a factory is not worth that risk.

Of course, more jobs will be created by the factory. Our population will grow. To accommodate more
workers, more homes and stores will be needed. Do we really want this much growth, so fast? If our
town is going to grow, I would prefer slow growth with good planning. I don't want to see rows of
cheaply constructed townhouses. Our quality of life must be considered.

I believe that this growth will change our city too much. I love my hometown because it is a safe, small
town. It is also easy to travel here. If we must expand to hold new citizens, the small town feel will be
gone. I would miss that greatly.

A factory would be helpful in some ways. However, I feel that the dangers are greater than the benefits.
I cannot support apian to build a factory here, and hope that others feel the same way.
 6. If you could change one important thing about your hometown, what would you change? Use
reasons and specific examples to support your answer.

If I could change one thing about my hometown I think it would be the fact that there's no sense of
community here. People don't feel connected, they don't look out for each other, and they don't get to
know their neighbors.

People come and go a lot here. They change jobs frequently and move on. This means that they don't
put down roots in the community. They don't join community organizations, and they're not willing to
get involved in trying to improve the quality of life. If someone has a petition to put in a new street light,
she has a very hard time getting a lot of people to sign. They don't feel it has anything to do with them.
They don't get involved in improving the schools because they don't think the quality of education is
important to their lives. They don't see the connection between themselves and the rest of their
community.

People don't try to support others around them. They don't keep a friendly eye on their children, or
check in on older folks if they don't see them for a few days. They're not aware when people around
them may be going through a hard time. For example, they may not know if a neighbor loses a loved
one. There's not a lot of community support for individuals.

Neighbors don't get to know each other. Again, this is because people come and go within a few years.
So when neighbors go on vacation, no one is keeping an eye on their house. No one is making sure
nothing suspicious is going on there, like lights in the middle of the night. When neighbors' children are
cutting across someone's lawn on their bikes, there's no friendly way of casually mentioning the
problem. People immediately act as if it's a major property disagreement.

My hometown is a nice place to live in many ways, but it would be much nicer if we had that sense of
community.
 7. How do movies or television influence people's behavior? Use reasons and specific examples
to support your answer.

Do movies and television affect our behavior? A special concern is whether movies and television make
children and society more violent. I believe that movies and television do influence our behavior, both
for the better and for the worse.

Movies do make people more violent. The more we see violent acts on television, the less sensitive we
become to them: Eventually violence doesn't seem wrong. We may even commit violent acts ourselves.
This is especially true because we don't always realize that violence has consequences. Actors can be
killed and come back for another movie. Sometimes we confuse that with reality. We forget that killing
someone is permanent.

Movies and television also influence our behavior because they make us less active. Looking at films is a
passive activity. If we watch too much, we become unhealthy, both mentally and physically. We stop
using our own imagination when we see things acted out for us. Mental laziness becomes physical
laziness; we'd rather watch sports on TV than play sports ourselves. We'd rather visit with the characters
on "Seinfeld" or "Friends" than go chat with our own neighbors. Imaginary people have exciting lives. Is
it any wonder that some people would rather live a fantasy life than their own?

Of course, watching movies and television can also be good for us. It can give us a broader window on
the world. For example, seeing movies can expose us to people of different races and cultures. We can
then overcome some prejudices more easily. Recently there have been more handicapped people in
films, and this also helps reduce prejudice.

The best influence on our behavior is that movies and television reduce stress. Watching films, we can
escape our own problems for a little while. Also, sometime movies show positive ways to resolve
problems we all face. While TV and movies shouldn't be a way to hide from life, sometimes they can
help us cope.

It is true that movies and television can influence our behavior negatively. However, I also believe that
they influence our behavior in positive ways. How they affect you depends on how much you watch,
what you watch, and how you respond to what you watch.
 8. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Television has destroyed
communication among friends and family. Use specific reasons and examples to support your
opinion.

Some people believe that television has destroyed communication among friends and family. I think this
is an exaggeration. In my opinion, whether or not television hurts communication depends on what type
of program is being viewed. More importantly, it depends on the type of viewer.

There are empty programs and educational programs. Empty programs do not challenge people. They
have just enough storyline to keep them from switching channels. There are also passive and active
viewers. A passive viewer will just watch television without thinking about what he or she is seeing. The
combination of an empty program and a passive viewer makes communication unlikely. Passive viewers
just continue to watch, actually enjoying the fact that they don't have to think. They won't break away
to talk about programming with friends and family. Even with better programming, passive viewers still
won't think or communicate much. They'll probably even prefer the empty programs because the better
programming is too much work.

On the other hand, active viewers watching educational programming always want to share what they
see with friends and family. "Educational" doesn't necessarily mean documentaries on PBS. They could
be dramas with realistic relationships or action shows with clever plotlines. When active viewers watch
programs, they have ideas and talk about them with others. Good programming inspires them to change
their thinking and their lives. Unlike passive viewers, they don't want to watch more and more without
thinking.

Television may destroy communication among passive viewers. Those viewers probably don't want to
communicate with friends and family much anyway. For active viewers who already enjoy
communicating, television is actually helpful!
 9. Some people prefer to live in a small town. Others prefer to live in a big city. Which place
would you prefer to live in? Use specific reasons and details to support your answer.

I grew up in a small town and then moved to a big city, so I have experienced the good and bad sides of
both. I never thought that I would like living in a big city, but I was wrong. After ten years of living in one,
I can't imagine ever living in a small town again.

Small towns and big cities both have some problems in terms of transportation. In a small town, you
have to own a car to ensure a comfortable living. You can't get around without one because there isn't
any kind of public transportation. Big cities generally have heavy traffic and expensive parking, but there
you have a choice of taking public transportation. It's not free, but it's often cheaper than driving when
you consider gas and time. Especially if you don't have a car, you're better off in the city.

I love the excitement of big cities. Small towns have a slow pace. Large cities mean you have to adapt to
a variety of situations, like finding a new route to work or trying a new restaurant. I enjoy that challenge
very much. Another pan of the excitement of city living is the variety of cultural activities available.
There is a wide assortment of theatre, music and dance performances available in big cities. These
things are rare in small ones.

The final thing I like about large cities is the diversity of the people. The United States is made up of
people of different races, religions, abilities, and interests. However, you seldom find such a variety of
people in a smaller town. I think that living in an area where everyone was just like me would quickly
become boring.

Of course, security is a concern, and that's one area where small towns are superior to big cities. Still, I
would rather be a bit more cautious and live in a large city than to feel secure but bored.
 10. "When people succeed, it is because of hard work. Luck has nothing to do with success." Do
you agree or disagree with the quotation above? Use specific reasons and examples to explain
your position.

"When people succeed, it is because of hard work. Luck has nothing to do with success. " Do you agree
or disagree with the quotation above? Use specific reasons and examples to explain your position.

I fully agree with the claim that there is no correlation between success and luck. Moreover, I
understand success to refer to one's ability to achieve the predominant part of his goals in his lifetime,
which in turn leads to a correlation between success and income since the accomplishment of such a
natural goal as to provide a good future for your loved ones demands the means. What is the simplest
and most lawful way to earn enough to consider yourself a successful person? To receive a good
education and to find a good job. Both receiving an education and making a career presuppose one's
readiness to work hard, and success without hard work is simply not possible for the vast majority of the
world's population. The reasons and examples listed below will strengthen my point of view.

First of all, considering an education and a career as key factors of success, one will choose to pursue a
degree from a college or a university. One wishing to be admitted to the university will have to take
several tests. It is doubtful that someone will be so lucky that knowing nothing, he could pass the test
with a high score. A low score means failure, and that test taker will not likely be admitted. Therefore, in
order to be successful, one should prepare for the tests and work hard, because a good education will
provide him with a good job and an opportunity to accomplish some of his goals and dreams. In my
lifetime, I have never met a person who could graduate from a college without working hard.

Secondly, it is impossible to make a career if one is indolent and lacking knowledge, at least in
developed countries. Luck plays no role in achieving this success. Even if someone was unbelievably
lucky enough to become a manager not being qualified enough, he will be asked to resign in the near
future because of his inability due to lack of knowledge and experience to make right decisions. For
instance, I used to work for a very small company owned by a friend. This company was later closed
because of bankruptcy. The cause of bankruptcy was wrong strategies and decisions made by the
owner. After the failure, he went to a university and worked for another company so that he could
obtain experience and become a successful businessman. Nowadays, he considers himself a successful
person because he had turned into reality his two biggest dreams of producing consumer goods of high
quality and making charitable donations to needy people.

In sum, as long as someone understands success as an ability to turn into reality some of his dreams and
goals, he will have to work hard because he will need money. And his chances to earn that money will
remarkably increase if he could graduate from a college and make a career. All of these things are simply
not possible without hard work. Luck has no place in such a scheme of events.